bad electric guitar sound?

[justin_san3]

hello, i am new to this forum and i'm looking for some electric guitar recording advice. i play in a punk rock band in which the guitar is usually distorted. we use a crate 120 watt amp and oktava 219 mics to record the guitar. what we basically do is put the mic up to the amp grille, like many sites say works well. anyhow, we arent sure if we're doing something wrong but when we record the levels seem to be really high and when we record (using adobe audition) the wave picture basically just shows up as a fuzzy rectangle. we've tried turning the mic volume down but we still dont seem to be getting a good sound...the guitar just seems really overpowering and stuff... does anyone have any suggestions or tips for me? any would be greatly appreciated thanks

[Tadpui]

Ouch. those are condenser microphones, which are much more sensitive than dynamic microphones. it was probably dynamic mics that you read about being put up right against the speaker grill, since they can take that kind of SPL without "bottoming out" the diaphragm. i think that when condensers are used with guitar cabs, they're put out like 3' or so from the cabinet.

as far as I know, high SPLs like that can damage a condenser microphone. hopefully yours are still ok!

[rpe]

Ditto what Tadpui said. Get a dynamic (i.e., Shure SM57).

[justin_san3]

would using our stage mics work better? i have an AKG and my friend uses a Peavey...they are lower end mics..(cost about $50 each)

[BrentDomann]

Using your dynamic "stage mics" should fix the problem. However, I find that you can get a good sound with condenser mics at relatively low volumes with little amps that are cranked (or even not). Best bet: the louder the amp you are micing, the cheaper mic you should put up next to it until you get an idea of what kinds of levels you will be dealing with. It will save you time, money, and frustration if you are more careful with your equipment.

Sorry if it sounds preachy, but we all know how hard we work for our stuff, and it sucks to mess anything up over a stupid (no offense) mistake like not checking levels.

And if you are using a cranked amp to try to get a big sound, you'd be much better off using a small amp (or turning it way down) and recording two separate takes (i.e. two separate tracks) of the guitar and panning them 20%-50% left and right. I don't know if the vets here do the same, but it works for me. What is ideal is to not have ANY PART of your wave show up as "topping out" or clipping on your edit screen. You should see every curve. Digital clipping is the result of not keeping levels down, and it sounds like crap...and playing stuff back on a better stereo (which is what many listeners will do) will only make it more obvious, so avoid clipping at all costs. If the guitar (or any track for that matter) is too quiet even when maxed out on your mixer screen fader, then bring everything else down, until you get a good balance, and use the main L-R fader to boost everything back up. You can always normalize later.

[Buck62]

Originally posted by justin_san3
we use a crate 120 watt amp

That's the other half of your problem right there.

Plunk a regular old SM57 in front of any decent Marshall or Fender amp and you'll hear a world of difference.

Jimmy Page used a little solid-state Supro amp with a couple of SM57's on the first two Led Zeppelin albums... and it sounded great! There's a lot to be learned when it comes to proper mic-placement, too.

Also, don't be afraid to experiment.

[kid klash]

Check out the recording tips on the "Microphone" forum - you'll get lots of help there. By the way - if your Oktava 219's are distorting, they either need to be padded (-10db) or the mic preamps need to be turned down. Frankly speaking, they're the wrong mic to use "up close" on a 120 watt guitar amp turned to 11.